CODE MIXING VS. BORROWING

2.3 CODE MIXING VS. BORROWING

Code mixing refers to the transference of linguistics units words, phrases, and clauses from one language into another within the same speech situation and within single sentence Sridhar Sridhar, 1980:407. The term code mixing, according to Baker 2001:101, has sometime been used to describe changes at the word level e.g. when one word or a few words in a sentence change. Conversely, there is also another kind of language variation, which is called borrowing. It is a word, which has been taken from one language then used in another language Richard, Platt, Weber, 1985:30. Fasold 2006:294 stated that borrowing is the adoption of elements from another language or dialect. The borrowed elements are usually lexical items, known as loan words. Weinrich 1968:47 claimed that a morpheme is more likely to be borrowed the less bound it is. Various studies have shown that content words nouns, which are the least-bound forms, followed by verbs and adjectives and interjections are generally borrowed more often than function words, which are in turn borrowed more frequently than inflectional particles. Borrowing generally involves single words – mainly nouns, and it is motivated by lexical need Holmes, 1992:50. Also frequently borrowed are brand names, places names, greetings, sayings, slang terms, and expressions Fantini, 1985:152. The types of words that are borrowed tend to be related to the majority culture behind the donor language, because “the less culturally bound an item, the less likely the possibility of a ready synonym in the another language”. Borrowed words are usually adapted to the speaker’s first language. They are pronounced and used grammatically as if they were part of the speaker first language. On the contrary, code mixing suggests the speaker is mixing up codes indiscriminately or perhaps because of incompetence Holmes, 1992:50. Hudson 1995:55 adds “…code mixing involves mixing languages in speech, while borrowing involves mixing the system themselves, because an item ‘borrowed’ from one language to become part of the other language”. For instance, New Zealand English has borrowed the word mana from Maori. There is no exact equivalent to its meaning in English, although it is sometimes translated as meaning ‘prestige’ or ‘high status’. It is pronounced [ma:ne] by most New Zealanders. The Maori pronunciation is quite different with a short a in both syllables. Most English speakers similarly adopt the word Maori. They pluralize it by adding the English Plural inflection s and talk of the Maoris. In the Maori language the plural is not marked by an inflection on the noun Holmes, 1992:50-51. According to Sridhar Sridhar 1980:407, code mixing is distinguished from borrowing on the following grounds. 1. The mixed elements of code mixing do not fill the “lexical gaps” in the host language. It means that the set of borrowed expression in a language typically represents semantic field outside the experience of the borrowing language, whereas the expression that occur in code mixing may duplicate existing expressions. 2. The mixed elements of code mixing often sequences longer than single words. Code mixing involves every level of lexical and syntactic structure, including words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Conversely, borrowing may occasionally involves a few set phrases but it is usually restricted to single lexical items. 3. The mixed elements of code mixing are not restricted to a more or less limited set accepted by the speech community of the host language. On the contrary, the entire second language system is at the disposal of the code mixer. Code mixing draws on every category and constituent type in grammar, while borrowing usually represents mostly nouns, and marginally a few adjectives and other categories. 4. The mixed elements of code mixing are not necessarily assimilated into the host language by regular phonological and morphological process.Code mixing draws creatively upon practically the whole of the vocabulary and grammar of another language, while borrowing represent a restricted set of expressions with some creativity in the margins. 5. The two terms, both code mixing and borrowing, make totally different claims about the competence of the individual speaker. Borrowing words can occur even in the speech of monolinguals, whereas code mixing presupposes a certain degree of bilingual competence. Consider the following examples of code mixing by Sridhar Sridhar 1980:408 of Kannada-English bilingual speech in informal conversations: 1 nam tande airport- ge hogiddare. My father has gone to the airport. 2 avaru committee chairmanagodu nanage ista illa. I don’t like he is becoming the committee chairman. 3 And from there I went to livepa mucho sitios. … in a lot of places. 4 El hombre who saw the accident es cubano. The man ... is Cuban. As we can see on the examples above, the most frequency mixed elements are the single words which is especially nouns, conjoined sentences, main clauses, subordinate clauses including relative clauses, major constituents such as noun phrases, verb phrases, and prepositional phrases. Among single words, nouns outrank all others in frequency of mixing followed by adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Grammatical items such as articles, quantifiers, auxiliaries, and prepositions are also likely to be mixed by them.

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

There are some methods applied in conducting this research. Sudaryanto 1993:3 states that method is a kind of systematical work plan in order to make a research works easier so that the research can achieve its main purpose. This chapter contains four parts, they are research method; data sources, population, sample, and sampling technique; methods of collecting data; and methods of analyzing data.

3.1. RESEARCH METHOD

The method used in this research is descriptive method with a qualitative approach. Descriptive method is a method that illustrates the characteristics of a population factually and accurately Djajasudarma, 1993:16. Isaac Michael 1987:42 adds that descriptive method provide a systematic, factual, and accurate description of a situation of area. Descriptive means describe, make a note, and analyze the conditions that occur. According to Djajasudarma 1993:10, there are two types of approach in a research; they are quantitative approach and qualitative approach. The writer applies qualitative approach because the data are